Pimp your PS4: Animated dashboard themes coming this fall

Above: Man, this Toro and Kuro dynamic theme for PS4 is pretty darn cute.

At last, your PlayStation 4 dashboard can look less generic and blue.

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan revealed today that dashboard themes, which will change the look of your console’s home screen, are coming in firmware update 2.0, due this fall.

Sony Japan showed off an animated theme featuring its mascot Toro the cat and his neighbor Kuro at its pre-Tokyo Games Show press conference. In a neat touch, the theme featured an inside view of Toro’s house when using the main menu, then jumped to a rooftop scene for the top-level menu.

Customizable dashboards remain a popular feature on previous-generation consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and their arrival on PlayStation 4 is welcome. There’s no option to customize the Xbox One dashboard yet, although you can change its color.

It’s not yet clear how much choice gamers will get over themes when they hit PlayStation 4. On PlayStation 3, you can make any static image into a background image and can even create your own theme from scratch, including custom icons. You can also download a range of free and paid-for static and dynamic themes from the PlayStation Store.

Firmware update 2.0 will also bring the unique Shareplay feature to PS4, which allows gamers to jump into their friend’s games remotely as if they were sharing a couch, using the magic of Gaikai streaming technology.

You can watch the first PlayStation 4 dynamic theme in action below:

GamesBeat 2014 — VentureBeat’s sixth annual event on disruption in the video game market — is coming up on Sept 15-16 in San Francisco. Purchase your ticket now to save $200!

Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony. The company was... read more »